Establishment of chicken dedifferentiated fat (DFAT) cells as a preadipocyte cell line for adipogenic differentiation studies

Avian adipocyte differentiation differs from mammalian adipocyte differentiation; however, no useful preadipocyte cell line has been established to study avian adipocyte differentiation. This study investigated whether dedifferentiated fat (DFAT) cells derived from chick mature adipocytes have the same characteristics as stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cells derived from adipose tissues and whether DFAT cells can be used as an avian preadipocyte cell line. The floating top layer, which contained mature adipocytes, was isolated from chick abdominal fat tissue by collagenase digestion and filtration. To induce spontaneous dedifferentiation, the isolated mature adipocytes were cultured using the ceiling culture method. After 14 days of culture, the proliferation and differentiation potential of the resulting DFAT cells was evaluated. The isolated mature adipocytes successfully dedifferentiated into DFAT cells and actively proliferated in ceiling culture. The proliferative capacity of DFAT cells was similar to that of the SVF cells, although the ability of DFAT cells to differentiate into mature adipocytes was significantly higher than that of SVF cells. Subcultured DFAT cells maintained normal proliferation and differentiation into adipocytes for at least 33 passages. This study demonstrated that chicken DFAT cells provide a readily established preadipocyte cell line derived from mature adipocytes, which can be used as a model for investigating adipogenic differentiation in chickens.